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Topic: $50 mod thread (Read 340358 times)

I know alot of us eliminate our turn sigs... well here is how to save your switch housings as well...pull out the old switches, remove the stickers and sande it all down... then use bondo or JB weld if you are going to powder coate them... after it cures then sand it smooth... i filled in all the indents on them as well... but lefter the hole for the starter button... that i will keep... just another cheap and CLEAN trick for cheap

building solid state replacements for old selenium rectifiersaround $5here's another useful one, i tend to bookmark various links as i find them which may be relevant later, and this thread seems a good place to put them all.http://physiology.usouthal.edu/restore/diode/diode.html

building solid state replacements for old selenium rectifiersaround $5here's another useful one, i tend to bookmark various links as i find them which may be relevant later, and this thread seems a good place to put them all.http://physiology.usouthal.edu/restore/diode/diode.html

I did the Radio Shack rectifier mod on my '71 CB350. Works great! I used to have to hook up a float charger every couple of days to keep the battery topped off. Not any more. Also my turn signal flashers used to work kinda funky (not a constant blink rate) Now they blink nice and steady.

My battery use to drain like crazy when I first started riding. I'd have to put it on a trickle charger every two days. Then I figured out that I just gotta ride it a bit harder to get the RPM's up...and never use the electric starter.

How much of a difference does this mod make? Can I use the electric starter and ride like a granny?

That scares me! There is no voltage regulation at all. maybe my bike is just weird. I have 3 yellow wires from the alternator. I ran these through a voltage rectifier (a 3 phase one I made with diodes.) and a capacitor rated for 50v. (to smooth out the voltage ripple.) My plan was to measure the results and then figure out what to do about the voltage regulation so I could bring it down to about 14v to charge the batt. I hooked it up started my cb400 and watched my DMM peak at over 100v and then the capacitor exploded. Maybe the cb350 isn't wired the same and doesn't need a regulator, or has a seperate one. My bike (and many others, I'd wager.) had an intergrated rectifier/regulator. This would replace the rectifier part but not the regulator. It might even work fine, but consistantly overcharge the battery. The voltage would drop to the battery voltage, but nothing would stop it from rising beyond the 13.5v or so of a full battery; cooking the bejesus out of your battery.

Represto: If your bike was designed to work with just a rectifier and no regulator as the above diagram indicates; this would be much better then the oldschool selenium one. It should work better then brand new.

my 15 dollar bike tableput this in my build thread but figured someone may need it later... going to figure out how to use a bottle jack to raise the whole unit up and downwent to the local walgreens... sweet talked the mgr and she gave me 5 milk crates... from there i went to dads house, i recently built him a trailer that would allow him to bring his Harley and his Jet ski to his summer get away in marco island... still had a 3/4 sheet of ply... i cut that to be 2.5 ft wide... with the excess i cut 2.5 sections... then i dug though his bolt collection till i found 10 bolts that matched (round lags) 10 washers, and 10 nuts... then i cut 5 strips from some extra wood we had laying around... now assembly... drilled 2 holes in each strip i cut, then mounted the milk crates to the smaller sections i cut... after i got all those done i simply bolted it all together at home... tossed one of the 15 wheel chucks i have (we take a ton of bike to FL ever year so i ahve a ton) added some mounting points for straps and BOOM.. i gots a table!

my 15 dollar bike tableput this in my build thread but figured someone may need it later... going to figure out how to use a bottle jack to raise the whole unit up and downwent to the local walgreens... sweet talked the mgr and she gave me 5 milk crates... from there i went to dads house, i recently built him a trailer that would allow him to bring his Harley and his Jet ski to his summer get away in marco island... still had a 3/4 sheet of ply... i cut that to be 2.5 ft wide... with the excess i cut 2.5 sections... then i dug though his bolt collection till i found 10 bolts that matched (round lags) 10 washers, and 10 nuts... then i cut 5 strips from some extra wood we had laying around... now assembly... drilled 2 holes in each strip i cut, then mounted the milk crates to the smaller sections i cut... after i got all those done i simply bolted it all together at home... tossed one of the 15 wheel chucks i have (we take a ton of bike to FL ever year so i ahve a ton) added some mounting points for straps and BOOM.. i gots a table!

Simply Awesone Joe! I am going to have to make something like this as soon as the bike is ready to be reassembled. I am using a craftsman tool bench right now and it is such a stupid design, but it is all I have for now, so I make due. I filed a claim with ebay so as soon as I find out what the deal is with my rearsets I'll be giving you a ring about the spacers man. My swingarm is going out this week for a guy in the sohc4 board to make me some custom brass bearings on his lathe. People rave about his quality, so I am gonna check it out.

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Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is madness. -Mark Twain